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Help, I Need Somebody (Not Just Anybody)

Chapter 4

Notes:

Sorry for the wait! I wasn't planning on doing Whumptober (the best time of the year!!!) but the time-sensitive plot bunnies demanded to be written. The Whumptober fills have all been posted now, with one more coming on the 31st, which meant I could give time back to this one!

Thank you all for your patience! I hope you enjoy the epilogue!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Epilogue

“You’re going to make me laaaaaate,” Tali whined from the back seat of Tony’s extremely functional hatchback. When she was in college, he’d go back to his beautiful muscle cars, but not until the absence of a car seat, snacks, gear—he never knew kids needed so much stuff!—and liquids from definitely-not spill-proof cups.

Tony checked the clock on the dash. “You’re still fifteen minutes early.”

“Early is on time and on time is late!” Tali threw herself back into her seat dramatically, arms crossed over her green Girl Scout vest for extra emphasis. She’d been like this all morning, short-tempered and emotional, and if this day wasn’t so darn important to her, Tony probably would have cancelled for a slow day at home. But as it was, this was her only chance to earn her outdoors badge in a situation Tony agreed to.

For reasons he didn’t understand, Girl Scouts didn’t seem to have much actual structure, the girls dictating to the leader what they wanted to do, and unfortunately/fortunately most of the girls in Tali’s group wanted a more STEM course, which Tony supported and hoped his daughter would go into something with computers: safer and man, would she make a lot more than he ever did. Unfortunately/fortunately, his daughter also had quite a bit of him in her after all and wanted some outdoor badges as well, especially after she’d heard McGee was readying his troupe for one.

Three weeks ago, she’d slammed the permission slip onto the table under his nose and begged, explaining it all in what seemed like one breath. Tony had been ready to say no—it hadn’t been that long since he’d had the image of her bound and sobbing with a gun to her head seared into his brain for the rest of eternity. Since she’d all but screamed when he or Gibbs left at night so Tony had ended up in her bed for a week with Gibbs had sleeping on the couch, both at the hotel then back in their apartment, until she had settled back down enough to see reason—but then, the other shoe dropped.

McGee was leading this nature adventure apparently. Tali said it so casually, so matter-of-fact, all while not quite meeting his gaze, that Tony instantly knew she’d already talked to McGee. Which meant Abby too. And probably Gibbs. In fact, if he was the last one who knew about this excursion, he wouldn’t be surprised at all.

So when Tali launched into her argument about how McGee would send Tony the course and she’d have her phone on her at all times so he could track her on the GPS Abby set up if he wanted, and how it was only one day and she’d be back for dinner, Tony listened as openly as he could with his heart threatening to beat out of his chest.

It didn’t matter than the men responsible had been caught and flown back to Tel Aviv to stand trial within two days—as much as Tony wanted them to be processed here, a whole ocean between them and his daughter seemed like the better idea—or that Orli had all but assured Tony something like this would never happen again, it was just too close, too soon. He wasn’t ready.

“I’ll think about it,” he said, bracing for a fight, but surprisingly, Tali just nodded.

“McGee said you’d say that.” Then she clapped her hands over her mouth and stared at him, eyes wide.

Two could play that game.

“So you already talked to McGee, hmmm?” Tony asked, cocking his head with his own faux nonchalance.

She stared silently at him.

“Taliiiiiii.”

“I had to make sure he’d be okay with taking me and I knew you’d be worried so I talked to him about cautions—”

“About what?”

“The stuff that makes you careful.”

Pre-cautions.”

Tali nodded. “And he told me all that stuff and said to check your email.”

Tony felt himself scowling, which had Tali hurrying to add, “he also said if you said no, I had to listen to you and wait until the fall, even though that’s five months away, and Morgan and Johnny will be toddlers with their own schedules and he isn’t sure when he’ll be able to lead an adventure again.” Tali shot Tony a sidelong gaze, which he returned evenly.

Man, she was going to be a handful when she got older.

“I’ll think about it. Final answer.”

She looked at him hopefully.

“The answer is going to be ‘no’ unless you get out of my face this very second,” Tony added, without heat. Still, Tali’s eyes widened and she’d all but sprinted to her room to get ready for school.

In the end, Tony had caved because she (and McGee, Abby and Gibbs) had really done their homework in making sure this was the safest possible outing for Tali, with McGee promising Tony for the fiftieth time that he would be armed, just in case, but this was a trail he’d done tens of times without issue. And, at the end of the day, Tony couldn’t let Tali live in fear, no matter how fearful he was going to be the entire day while she was out of his sight.

Which is why he’d enlisted Abby to fly in for a long weekend to distract him while Tali was gone. They hadn’t hung out together in a while, not since her London-based charity had really kicked off, and he was looking forward to catching up. What he hadn't expected was how Tali had almost melted down that morning about their previously agreed-on pigtails, but Abby, bless her, had stepped in and had Tali’s hair in one of those crime scene braid things Tony had yet to figure out in seconds, which was exactly how long it took to see a smile back on his daughter’s face.

“—and it doesn’t matter what the boys think anyway,” Abby had been saying.

Boys? Tali was way too young for any of that. Tony shot Abby a concerned look, which she ignored.

“Because why?” she prompted Tali, who was turning back and forth to admire her hair in the mirror.

“Because we’re smart, and kind and important.”

The Help. Interesting…

“And we can beat them up if they don’t listen to us.”

“Tali!” Tony interjected, scandalized.

She looked over at him, lips pursed tightly together as she tried and failed to bite back a smile.

“Aunt Abby said it, not me!”

Tony’s head whipped over to her.

Fighting a smile of her own, Abby shrugged. “That wasn’t exactly what I said, but a girl has to have her options. Especially around yucky, smelly middle-school boys.”

At that, Tali nodded solemnly.

Scrubbing at the ache building between his eyebrows, Tony turned to his daughter. “Well, there will be no beating anyone up at all on the trip, you understand me? Or there won’t be a second Scouts adventure.”

“Even if they deserve it?”

Tony fixed her with an unamused look.

Tali nodded. “No beating anyone up with my new karate skills,” she said sadly.

“What karate skills?”

Tali had just smiled at him and skipped to the car.

“Dad, you missed the turn!” Tali wailed, pulling Tony back into the present.

He slammed on the brakes, thankful no one was behind them, and burned rubber on a much delayed turn into the trailhead parking lot and into the first available spot.

“You clearly haven’t unlearned Gibbs-style driving,” Abby muttered under her breath as she released the overhead handle she’d been clutching one finger at a time.

Before Tony could retort, Tali had already unbuckled her car seat and was tugging on the childproofed door handle. “C’mon, Dad! I can’t be late! I don’t wanna be favoritism.”

“You don’t want to have McGee to show you favoritism,” Tony corrected as he hauled himself out of the car and opened the back door. “Especially in front of the other kids.”

“I’m already his favorite,” Tali scoffed, grabbing the pack they’d packed and unpacked for what felt like hours until all her essentials mandated by McGee had fit, from the middle seat and slinging it onto her back.

Thankfully, she seemed to remember what Tony had drilled into her about parking lot safety and held out her hand, though she was practically vibrating with excitement.

“You coming?” Tony asked Abby.

She shook her head. “You two go. I’ll wait here.”

“Yes, go,” Tali said. “Now. Before I am late.”

“Say goodb—”

“Bye Aunt Abby! See you when the hike is over.”

She turned expectantly to Tony, who shrugged apologetically at Abby, then led his daughter across the parking lot to where the other kids were already gathered.

“Hey Tali!” McGee said, scribbling on a clipboard. “Glad you could make it.”

Tali wriggled her hand free then hurried over to the group of mostly boys, barely sparing McGee a “hi, McGoo,” before sliding easily into their conversation. If the day kept up like that, no beating up of yucky, smelly middle school boys was going to be needed.

It did, though, leave Tony feeling strangely emotional about how easily Tali had left. He didn’t want a hero’s farewell, but some sort of goodbye would have been nice.

Choosing to ignore the rolling of his stomach, he turned to McGee and engaged one of his favorite defense mechanisms. “You’re aware a dead animal has made its home on your upper lip?”

“I’m not taking the bait, Tony,” McGee said without looking up from his clipboard. “It’s not too late for you to come along, if you’re worried about Tali. It’s only a couple miles.”

Tony shook his head. “I can’t. She needs this.” Then he took a critical look at McGee. “You got something there,” he said, pointing to McGee’s cheek.

“Not buying it.”

“No, for real,” Tony said, falling easily back into their banter. “It’s all yellow and crusty.”

McGee frowned and must have felt the substance crumble, since he swiped at it with the back of his hand, staring sadly at the residue. “Morgan wasn’t happy I was leaving,” he lamented.

He looked so heartbroken, Tony reached out and clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s only one day. You’ll be back before dinner,” he parroted gleefully.

“I supposed I deserve that,” McGee grumbled.

Tony nodded. “But then again, I did get your kids a drum set for Christmas so—”

McGee’s gaze hardened. “That was you?”

Tony paused for a second then shook his head. “I did say ‘I’? I meant, someone.” He made a show of looking at his watch as he began double-timing it backward. “Time for the hike, McLeader. Don’t want them to be late.”

“Tony… Tony! We’re not finished talking about this!” McGee shouted, but Tony was already out of arm's reach, almost back to the edge of the parking lot.

He felt a tug on the bottom of his shirt and turned around to find Tali looking up at him, wide-eyed and earnest. To her credit, her feet were still on the sand of the trailhead and not the asphalt of the lot.

“Bye, dad. Love you,” she said, giving him a quick hug before heading back to her new Scout-mates.

"Love you too," he choked out, around an inexplicable lump in his throat. "Be safe!"

"Alll-ways," she called over her shoulder, then made a shooing motion with her hand.

She was going to be fine. Tony trusted McGee with his life. And truly, he trusted him with Tali's too.

Saying it and doing it were two different things though. Walking away and leaving her after...

He had to. She deserved to be normal.

So Tony cleared his throat forcefully, then forced himself to walk back to the car at a much more sedate pace.

“Don’t you start,” he warned as he slid back into the driver’s seat, finding Abby swiping at the corner of her eye. “Because I will not be far behind.”

“Tali is going to be fine,” Abby said, the slight wobble in her tone negating some of the conviction. “McGee won’t let anything happen to her.”

She paused then, wiping under her eyes with a lacy black handkerchief, while shooting Tony a sidelong and somewhat guilty glance.

“What?”

“Don’t be mad, but I did sneak a tracker in her shoe. Just in case.”

Oh thank God she had, because as much as he’d wanted to, Tony didn’t want to stoop to that level, not yet.

“I’m not mad. I hope it’s better than the ones you used on me.”

Abby scoffed. “Light years better. This one could take a whole waterboarding and keep on ticking. It’s practically indestructible.” She pulled up an app on her phone and showed Tony the dot over their current location. “I may have tested it quite a bit after you told me why you wanted me to come.”

Pulling in a long breath, Tony reached out and pushed down Abby’s phone. “Neither of us are going to check that today, not until we stop hearing from McGee.”

“But—”

“She deserves a chance to be normal. Which means we have to let her be normal.”

With that, Tony started the engine, idling in the spot as the troupe headed off. His daughter was fully engrossed with her new friends, not once turning to wave at him like she did each school day as she walked into her first-grade classroom.

He clamped his jaw closed, forced himself to breathe. “So what do you want to do while she’s gone?” he asked as he watched until the troupe was out of sight.

“Breakfast. At the diner. With Gibbs. I hear he’s seeing someone—and scuttlebutt says they’re pretty serious.”

Tony whipped his head around to look at Abby. “What?”

“He didn’t mention it to you?” Abby shook her head. “Well, you have had a lot going on. I’m sure he was just waiting for the right time.”

“Gibbs has a girlfriend, huh?” Tony mused as he pulled out of the parking lot and set course for the diner. “You ever thought about what that’s like?”

Abby grinned. “Have I ever.” And the tangent she went off on, detailed, intense, and yet so very Abby, was the perfect distraction from Tali’s first serious outing post-Incident.

And for that, Tony could not have been more grateful.

Notes:

Thanks so much for reading! The epilogue was a last-minute addition, but so many of you expressed wanting to see more Papa Tony and team interactions that I had to add something. Besides, without it, we don’t really wrap up the case, or address what had happened long-term, so it ended up being a perfect place for that as well.

On that note: I have a ton of Tony & Tali & team head canons that didn’t make it into this fic and since they’re too long for the end notes, I’ll add them as a comment if anyone is interested.

As for what’s next, I have a Whumptober prompt fill for the 31st "Asking for Help" where Tony going missing is the reason Gibbs comes back from Mexico in 4x1 (if you were wondering what took this epilogue so long, the other two time-sensitive Whumptober prompts I filled and posted were the reason. It's the best time of the year!!) After that, I'd love to knock out the Spider & The Fly fix-it I’ve been promising for months now, but don’t be surprised if the next thing you see from me on here is me porting over My Probie’s Keeper from Fanfiction. In fandom years, it’s pretty much ready for social security, but I read it recently and am still very proud of it. We’ll see if I bring it over as is or if I try to clean it up a bit.

Anyway, thanks so much for your views, comments and support! If you could spare the time, I’d love to know what you thought on the way out! Reviews are the space bun hairstyle to my Tali and the pristine Blu-Ray collection to my Tony!

Notes:

Thanks for reading! Reviews are the movie references to my Tony and the Caf-Pows to my Abby!

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